Learning Outcomes

Fall

This course brings students together to read, discuss, and write about a group of texts and other works foundational to a liberal arts education. The course aims to engage students with some of the enduring questions that reverberate through all academic disciplines and that have shaped some of humanity’s great intellectual achievements. Engaging with such enduring questions requires engaging the materials, tasks, and assignments in this course, and doing so will afford students the opportunity to develop the following skills and capacities:

Work collaboratively and constructively in a group setting. (Demonstrate capacity to listen, respond reasonably to, and build on the intellectual positions staked out by course materials, instructors, and fellow students.)

Perform careful, critical reading of sophisticated texts. (Demonstrate understanding of form and contents of texts; discern patterns and anomalies in form and content; produce thoughtful informal and formal commentary on texts.)

Articulate in spoken and written word effective analysis and synthesis of texts and ideas.(Demonstrate capacity to collect, evaluate, and employ evidence for analytical, synthetic, or interpretive claims and to weigh the merits of competing arguments.)

Spring

The following is offered as a template of Learning Objective for Spring E&D syllabi. Instructors may adopt it as is, or modify it or substitute/add other elements to better suit individual sections. The Steering Committee asks that in any case your syllabus explicitly address the general categories covered in this statement. That is, these learning objectives are meant to reflect the required elements of all spring sections and we ask that your syllabus clearly present some version of the objectives.

Work collaboratively and constructively in a group setting. (Demonstrate capacity to listen, respond reasonably to, and build on the intellectual positions staked out by course materials, instructors, and fellow students.)

Pursue original research leading to the production of a major essay, in which students will use appropriate research tools and sources to meet the information need. (Demonstrate capacity to formulate a compelling research question, employ various research sources and methods, formulate an original thesis supported with sufficient evidence, and produce proper citations and reference lists.)

Prepare and deliver a formal oral presentation. (Demonstrate capacity to orally present original ideas in a coherent and persuasive manner, and respond to audience questions and remarks.)